Ravioli Health Update

Rav’s vet (in purple) and the amazing staff loving on him at Torrey Pines Animal Hospital!

*Please talk to your vet immediately if your dog is on grain-free food!! This is a serious issue and misunderstood by a lot of people!*

Hi! I have been getting a lot of questions about Ravioli’s health and also the grain-free food issue in general so I wanted to write a quick post about it. I’m no doctor by ANY means so this update is going to sound really unprofessional but this is the way I have interpreted everything!

First, I want to talk about the grain-free food thing and how that has affected us. In the first year of Ravioli’s life, we figured out that he has a very sensitive tummy (this is a common issue with golden retrievers). We went through at least 5 different kinds of dog food trying to figure out which one would work for him and not give him diarrhea. The one we landed on was a seemingly amazing food (Stella & Chewy’s Freeze Dried Raw Coated Kibble). This is a boutique, expensive, grain-free food but it worked for his tummy and we didn’t care. It was worth it to us that he was feeling his best and he stayed on this food for approximately 2 years.

Little did we know, grain-free food would cause a lot of anxiety for us, tests for Ravioli, an echocardiogram, and a diet change. It all started when big news outlets started releasing results of an FDA investigation on the “potential” link between certain diets and canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). You can read an article about it here. This was actually released last year in 2018 but I personally didn’t hear much about it until earlier this year when my mom and neighbors saw it being talked about on the news and told me to look into it. At first I didn’t understand what it was- I thought it was just a list of foods that were bad for your dog and I ignored it since Rav’s fancy food wasn’t on that list. The subject matter of the article I linked above wasn’t on my radar at all until I kept hearing “grain-free” mentioned over and over on Ravioli’s instagram (RIP @raviolicannoli instagram handle!) and continuously on the news and in articles online. I talked to some friends (Hi Graham!) and also watched @basilthegolden’s DCM instagram story highlights. I also caught up on @holdenthegolden_’s story. This is when panic started to set in.

I immediately made an appointment with our vet. I told them that Ravioli had been on grain-free food for a couple of years (at this point, this bit of info is urgent enough for a no questions asked vet visit). I wanted to take it further and said that we would like to get an echocardiogram to see what damage, if any, has been done to Ravioli’s heart. I also told them that I wanted to submit a blood sample to UC Davis for a taurine analysis (this is a special and carefully submitted sample that needs to be handled with care). Our vet office is incredible and immediately wanted to take action. They are obviously well aware of DCM and we started making appointments, including getting on the cardiologist’s schedule for his next visit to San Diego. Apparently they used to say to start with a blood test to check the taurine levels and then do an echo only if taurine levels were low but I think there were cases of dogs whose blood tests came back ok but still had heart disease show up in an echo (potentially because food companies have started supplementing taurine!!).

We have Healthy Paws insurance and they covered everything at our regular level simply because of the mention of the grain free diet for 2 plus years. If you pursue this make sure the vet makes note of the grain free diet in their notes to ensure your insurance will cover it. It didn’t matter that he didn’t show any symptoms of heart disease. Our vet actually told us that by the time symptoms are detected, the disease can be pretty far progressed. She was very supportive of us doing these tests even though she didn’t detect anything when listening to his heart, etc. (fyi- a lot of this info is directly quoted from Basil’s mom and directly applies to Ravioli! I was so confused about everything and saved this all in my notes in my phone so I could tell our vet!).

We had a vacation scheduled and decided not to change Ravioli’s food until we got back so that he wouldn’t have tummy issues with our neighbors (and our vet said that it was ok for now). Finally when we got back in August, we started the testing and also got the echo. The cardiologist reported back to us that we caught the issue JUST in time. Had we left Ravioli on the grain free food for another year he would have heart disease. He has a benign heart murmur that is unrelated but more notably his heart is in the upper 10% of the normal range for size. This could mean he just has a big heart but it is most likely enlarged from the grain-free food. We will be doing another echo in a year to make sure his heart size has gone down or remained the same.

Right away we changed his food and after much consideration switched to the same one Basil eats (he has a sensitive tummy too!) which is: Purina Pro Plan Focus Adult Sensitive Skin & Stomach Salmon and Rice Formula. (this is an #afflink and if you use my link I may get a few pennies of commission!)

As many of you know, Ravioli also had abnormal red blood cell counts and also crystals in his urine. As of a couple days ago it looks like his red blood cells are back to normal count and size and there might be a couple crystals left in his urine but we are making sure to keep him hydrated and keeping a close eye on him (I am hyperaware of his state of being at all times!). The vet said that the misshaped and count of the blood cells could be from ingesting raw garlic or onions so please beware of this with your pups! I hope I covered everything but please leave comments below if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer!